Statf Dept Says Not Told of Saudi Plans to Take Fahd Proposal to United Nations

November 9, 1981

Washington (Nov. 8)

The State Department indicated Friday that it had no advance warning that Saudi Arabia had plans to take Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Fahd’s eight-point Mideast peace plan before the United Nations.

Department Deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said the United States had no official word from the Saudis and had only read press reports about the statement in Riyadh Thursday by Prince Saud, the Saudi Foreign Minister, that the Saudis would seek UN General Assembly endorsement of the Fahd plan and then ask the Security Council to sponsor an international conference in which the Soviet Union would participate.

Romberg had no comment on the proposal which was made shortly after the departure from Riyadh of Lord Carrington, the British Foreign Secretary and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community (EEC). But it was clear from Department sources that the United States had been taken by surprise by the proposal.

“We are committed and continue to be committed to the Camp David talks as the only basis for continued negotiations,” toward a Mideast peace, Romberg said. He had no comment Friday on the Fahd proposal, a position the Reagan Administration has taken all week following the strong Israeli negative reaction to U.S. expressions of interest in some parts of the plan.

HAIG MEETS WITH EEC ENVOYS

Romberg confirmed that Haig had met Thursday with the Ambassadors of Britain, France, Italy and The Netherlands, apparently to criticize the statements attacking the Camp David accords by Carrington to Riyadh.

The four countries are considering sending troops to the Multinational Force which will patrol the Sinai after Israel’s final evacuation next April 25.

Romberg said the United States would “welcome” European participation in the force but he said he had no comment on the force itself while the Europeans are weighing the various factors they need to decide on whether or not to join.